


Reasons

by Servena



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Adopted Children, Bravery, Caves, Fear, Fearlessness, Found Family, Gen, Human, Literal Sleeping Together, Protectiveness, Rain, Sesshomaru's POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-19
Updated: 2019-05-19
Packaged: 2020-03-08 03:26:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18886225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servena/pseuds/Servena
Summary: Would he still be alone, he would be crossing the mountain right now.orSesshomaru and his companions wait out the night and the rain in a cave, where he ponders the nature of his companionships and their newest addition.





	Reasons

Would he still be alone, he would be crossing the mountain right now. The night is pitch black outside and the rain is falling like a curtain, but that wouldn’t bother him. His eyes are keen, his footing sure. They could reach the mountain top by morning, and what a sunrise that would be! (Not that he cares much about these things.). A-Un would have no trouble following him. And Jaken? Well, he’d just have to deal with it.

But he’s no longer alone. Oh, they would follow him, but they would be shivering in the cold rain that would drench them to the skin, and their human eyes wouldn’t allow them to see the edges of the path where the stone drops hundreds of feet deep. Rin could ride A-Un, but Kohaku would walk, and he’d have to keep his eyes out to keep him from falling to an untimely death. (What an irony for a boy who should be dead, but isn’t.) And humans aren’t as resilient as youkais, not even as someone like Jaken, they could get sick and die from that, too.

So instead they’re waiting out the night and the rain in a small cave. The sounds of deep breathing fills the air around him, but he’s awake, of course. He doesn’t need the sleep, and he wouldn’t even if he wanted to. These mountains are filled with lesser youkai, and a moment of inattention could cost him dearly.

So instead he watches them, and he wonders about the nature of their arrangement.

He can feel the warmth of the little girl sleeping at his side, her face nuzzled into the softness of his fur, her fingers clinging to a piece of his empty sleeve. She’s never been afraid of him, simply never knew that she should. It’s humans that fill her with fear, he’s seen it, and the wolf demons that took her first life. He figured that there’s simply something broken in her, has been since her parents were killed and she became mute, and while speech has come back to her, she’s not quite right and will probably never be. Who else would sleep at the side of a creature like him?

The boy is a different story. His lack of fear on their first meeting had been fake, fabricated, the boy a mere puppet to the desires of another. And if there’s one thing he doesn’t like, it’s playing into the hands of others without getting something out of it. So the boy lives, a magical life, but a life nonetheless. And he’s still here.

Rin likes him. That’s as good an argument as any to let him stay. He’s a skilled fighter, too, not that he needs any, but it’s always comfortable to have people around to deal with lesser threats. (What else is Jaken for?) But he's also interesting, and there aren’t many things that interest him in this world.

He’s also not asleep, not really anyway. The closed eyes can’t fool him, he can hear the shallows breaths, can see him turning and shivering against the cold stone wall at his back. He’s kept his distance, not out of fear but in a respectful way, and he’s paying for it. A-Un lies next to him, the animal has warmed up to the boy quickly (a friend of Rin is a friend of A-Un), but only in a figurative sense, since there’s not much warmth to be gathered from a cold-blooded creature like that.

“You’re cold.” It’s a simple statement, brought up quietly as not to wake up the girl at his side.

Still Kohaku’s eyes shoot open, his hand reaching for the weapon at his side before consciously stopping himself. Good reflexes, honed by a life as a demon hunter. (And if that isn’t an irony, there aren’t any in this world.) He watches the boy take a conscious breath before answering. “It’s cold in here”, he admits.

“You should sleep over here.” What good will the boy do him if he freezes to death over there, or worse, gets sick and slows them all down even further? And Rin would be so devastated.

The boy hesitates, but that’s still not fear, fear is too easy to smell on a human to be missed, but an unwillingness to transgress an invisible line. He’s aware that he’s a guest in a way that Rin is not, has never been.

Still he asks: “You’re not afraid of me, are you?”

The boy’s “No” is firm, without a tremble in his voice. Then he slowly gets to his feet, carefully picking up the weapon that he never parts with. There’s precious little light in the cave, but it’s enough for him to easily make out the boy in his armor, his pale face, the fact that he looks exhausted and underfed for a boy his age. Somebody should do something about that, he thinks.

There’s also an air of sadness around him in the same way that Rin exudes happiness, and there might not be anything anyone could ever do about that.

He moves a strand of white hair behind his ear and tilts his head, despite not being sure if the boy can make it out in the darkness. There might be little visible of him except the gleaming in his eyes. “No, you’re not afraid”, he speaks slowly. “Why is that?”

The boy looks at him. He’s not even fully grown, but he stands before him and looks him straight into the eyes without wavering. Greater men than him have failed at this. “I know you won’t kill me. It doesn’t serve your interests.”

He warrants the words with a huff, the hint of a laugh. The boy has a keen mind, and a brave heart. What a waste on someone like Naraku.

Let the boy have his revenge, if he can. And if he cannot, he, Sesshomaru, will finish things.

Kohaku settles down at Rin’s other side. The girl doesn’t wake up, just shifts unconsciously to give him some room. After a moment one head of the big beast A-Un blinks and raises up, missing the warm body. Slowly it gets up on its feet only to sink down next to them. In the morning they find that even Jaken has moved closer in the night (but of course he doesn’t want to hear anything about it).

So he keeps the boy and the little girl and the annoying toad demon and the dragon and he has his reasons, but it doesn’t matter. He, Sesshomaru, doesn’t have to justify himself to anyone.

He’ll keep as many humans as he likes.


End file.
